Arts

The amount of information returned from a regular search can be overwhelming to the inexperienced researcher, however there are a number of skills and techniques that can be used that will help you find the information you need. This include: 

• Use Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to link, connect or exclude words from your search. 
• Use phrase searching (putting phrases into quotation marks) to specify that a group of words/phrases must be in exact order. 
• It is unusual you will find everything you need in one resource. Therefore consider searching another resource if you do not find what you are looking for.
• Try using different keywords and keyword word combinations to expand your search results. 
• Don’t use full sentences or questions in your search. 

Consider reading other work by the same author 

Often authors will write several works about a topic. If the other works are available you could read those. 

Try using Google Scholar.

Google Scholar has links to freely available resources. Be careful - sometimes the resources do require institutional access.

Request access from the author directly.

You can request access from the author by emailing them or through the repository you found the item. They may send you a copy of their article if it's for research purposes.

Visit other libraries.

You can always try searching the public libraries here in Ireland if we don't have a copy of the book here at DBS. You can find more information on searching the Dublin City Public Library here.

If you cannot find the resource please contact the library. We may be aware of resources to search that you may not have considered. 

You can suggest the library purchase a book you cannot locate. The link is on this page.

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